Dough moulder

This invention relates to a dough moulder, for example a dough moulder which is suitable for moulding dough of different volumes or weight to suit a range of bread and/or breadstick sizes.

With the recent introduction of bakery set up in commercial shopping outlets or the bakery departments in supermarkets, a premium is placed on working space and flexibility of product production. As many of the products are produced in relatively small runs, the economics of a bakery of this type is generally improved if as many types of product can be produced from as few dough types as possible and the number of pieces of equipment used to produce the different products can be minimised.

Bread moulders are conventionally used to receive a piece of pre-weighted dough and mould to a desired shape for a specific bakery product before it is proved and baked.

In an effort to diversify product lines from single dough sources, it is often desirable to use the same dough for loaf production as roll production. For roll production this involves moulding the dough, dividing the dough into appropriately sized portions and then shaping the dough into final product form prior to baking. Round bread rolls are commonly produced by dividing off a portion of dough, rounding it into a rough ball and compressing the ball into a flattish circular shape. The flattened ball of dough is then compressed under a plate where the round disc is cut into similar sized portions. The disc then orbits for a predetermined period of time and each roll portion of dough is rounded up into a ball. The balls are then placed on baking trays where they are given a final proof and then baked. While there are several other methods of producing round rolls, all generally require the round roll to be made from a larger dough portion. This larger dough portion generally comes directly from the mixing machine.

It is well known that dough that is first sheeted out and flattened before further refining creates a better texture because the sheeting process aligns the cells in the dough. Such sheeting is difficult in round roll production as the sheeting process can overwork the dough making it difficult to hold its round shape during baking.

In one aspect, the invention provides a pressure rolling board for use in a bread moulder of the type including a dough conveyor operable to receive a strip of dough, the dough conveyor having a first run for cooperating with a curling element to curl or roll the dough strip into a dough piece and a second run operable with a pressure rolling board to mould the dough piece, the pressure board comprising an upper section and a lower section, the lower section including a plurality of formed troughs or channels.

The bread moulder is preferably of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,128,555 in the name of Willett, the whole contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a dough moulder including a dough conveyor operable to receive a strip of dough, the conveyor having a first run operable to co-operate with a curling element to curl or roll the dough strip into a dough piece and a second run operable with a pressure rolling board to mould the dough piece, wherein the pressure rolling board has an upper section and a lower section, the lower section including a plurality of formed channels or troughs.

The pressure board may be provided with a plurality of longitudinally extending grid slots adapted to receive grid plates. During its progress through the bread moulder, the dough which is rolled between the second run and the pressure board elongates and is contained within a confinement region defined by the grid slots and grid plates.

The lower section of the pressure board may further be provided with blade slots between each of the formed channels or troughs. The blade slots which are preferably along the upper edge of the wall of each channel or trough are adapted to receive blades which subdivide the containment region between the guide plates at the lower section of the pressure board. The blades perform the function of cutting and dividing the dough passing through the lower section of the containment regions. The dough divided by the blades passes along the individual channels.

As the dough is in compression under the action of the pressure board, the divided dough piece is able to expand to maintain contact with the second run of the conveyor.

The floor of each channel or trough progressively diverges from the plane of the pressure board and is provided with shaped edges or bevels to round the edges of the individual dough piece as it passes along the channel or trough.

It is preferable that these bevels and floor of the channel or trough are shaped so that the cross sectional area of the divided space between the pressure board and the second run of the conveyor remains substantially unchanged. Alternatively, the shaping provided by the bevels provides a substantially constant cross sectional area across the diameter of the dough piece as it progressed down the channel.

The upper edge of the wall of each channel or trough preferably is in the same plane as the upper section of the pressure board. Thus if the blade are not inserted into the slots the dough is able to roll past the lower section of the pressure board along the upper edges of the wall without being affected by the channels in the lower section of the pressure board.

In one preferred form of the invention, the lower section of the pressure board may be hinged to enable the channels to be raised when the blades are inserted in the blade slots. This enables pressure to be applied to the dough pieces when in the channels.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational and plan view of a flattened dough piece;

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